1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to dollies and devices configured for lifting. More particularly, it relates to dollies employed in the moving of large storage and display structures such as those employed in retail stores, commonly known as gondolas, which employ leveling foot extensions. In addition to lifting fully loaded retail gondolas, the disclosed device is also employable to lift and move file cabinets, shelving, and other such storage and display components which employ such a system of legs for support on a floor surface.
2. Prior Art
Storage and display shelving and cases are an everyday fact of life in a modern society. Because floor space in most retail stores, storage warehouses, and office buildings is at such a premium, the display and storage of merchandise, the storage of files and records, along with storage of an infinite number of other items, has progressed upward.
In order to conserve floor space in retail and commercial situations and to provide customers better viewing and access to products being sold, a system employing multiple horizontal shelves is commonly employed to hold products. In a retail setting such shelf systems are conventionally arranged to form aisles. Customers navigate the retail or wholesale sales store by walking through the aisles and choosing products from the multiple horizontal shelves holding them elevated above the floor. In a commercial or warehouse setting, a similar aisle configuration is conventionally employed. The shelves in this configuration also provide customers and users a much better view of the products being stored. Further, holding capacity of the products in a finite floor space is greatly increased by vertical stacking above a small footprint on the floor.
All such shelving and cabinets, whether in retail stores, warehouses, or offices, must be structurally able to support the load intended. This structural support, being generally metal, along with the products stacked on the elevated horizontal shelves, serves to make the shelf or gondola very heavy. The elevated inventory stacked on the heavy metal gondola or shelf, can increase the total weight of the shelf to a multiple many times that of the shelf structure itself. Such shelving in a retail setting generally provides a means to level out the shelves once installed in the form of a plurality of feet positioned at the distal end of a threaded shaft. The shaft may be rotated to position the feet supporting the shelves, further or closer to the lowest shelf. This allows users of such shelves to level them and elevate the bottom shelf above the floor surface.
For stores and other venues employing shelving for product display, a vexing problem arises when the shelves must be moved. It is preferred not to have to remove the products from the supporting shelves due to the amount of manpower and resulting cost and time and money involved. However the weight, and the fact that the products are elevated on shelves makes movement ungainly with the frequently top-heavy shelves and gondolas. Further, the feet extending from lowest shelf can be a hindrance in engaging lifting components.
A variety of jacks and dollies have been conventionally employed in the past. Many such devices employ vertical support legs with an adjustable leveling foot extending from a bottom end and employed to level the shelves. However, most conventional products used for the purpose fail to provide a unified system of components to lift, move, and subsequently re-place the shelf in position. Instead, conventional systems employ various jacks, forklifts and such for the purpose. This results in much time wasted and often damaged shelving from the ill-designed devices employed.
This is especially true when the moving of shelves is required during the remodeling or renovation of retail stores such as grocery stores, drug stores and the like. During such a remodeling process, it is often necessary to move large display cases, conventionally known as gondolas, which hold everything from tooth paste to canned soup. Moving them generally requires repositioning the shelves or gondolas from one part of the store to another. Often during a store remodeling process, the shelves will need to be moved multiple times to allow for various phases of construction and repositioning of merchandise to new locations.
In some instances, shorter and smaller loaded display cases might be relocated with any suitable lifting apparatus, such as conventional forklifts or floor jacks which place them on conventional flat surfaced dollies for transport. However, most display cases, such as those in grocery store aisles, are very long and not suited for this type of movement. Further, as is normal in retail sales establishments, the display cases are connected together in long sets to form the aisles in the store.
Consequently, transport by floor jack or flat dollies is not an option. Further, because storage and display properties of such display cases generally yield shelves very close to opposing shelves on the same display aisle, frequently there is insufficient room in the aisle formed between adjacent display cases for entry of a forklift or large flat surfaced dolly.
Further, the plurality of extending feet extending between the shelves and the floor must be accommodated. This generally calls for the shelf to be lifted on top of the individual spaced feet, or employing some type of lifting device which will lift the shelf and feet together, and not damage the threaded members extending between the feet and the floor.
As such, there is a continuing unmet need for an improved device and system of interlocking components allowing for an improved method for an easy, quick, and safe movement of large, heavily loaded display cases and gondolas. Such a system should be easily adapted to the job at hand and type of shelving and supports involved.
Still further, such a system should engage the shelving and gondolas in a fashion which will accommodate and not damage the leveling system provided by the feet extending between the floor and the shelving. In doing so, ideally, such a device and system should provide some manner to engage the shelf at a plurality of positions and employ the feet themselves to lock the shelf to the lifting component during movement. This insures the feet are not damaged and that the shelf is securely mounted to each lifting component.
With respect to the above, before explaining at least one preferred embodiment of the shelving lifting system herein in detail or in general, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangement of the components or the steps set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The various apparatus and methods of the disclosed shelf lifting system related invention are capable of other embodiments, and of being practiced and carried out in various ways, all of which will be obvious to those skilled in the art, once the information herein is reviewed. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of description and should not be regarded as limiting.
As such, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conception upon which this disclosure is based may readily be utilized as a basis for designing other shelf lifting and transport systems, and, for carrying out the several purposes of the present disclosed device and method. It is important, therefore, that the embodiments, objects and claims herein, be regarded as including such equivalent construction and methodology insofar as they do not depart from the spirit and scope of the present invention.